Wolverinebass

Ironically, when I spoke to Ian Klos on the phone he asked me about headstock shape. He was determined to not have the 4 in a line Fender as he wanted a better balance. I suggested 2+2 with more like an Ibanez or Status (obviously without stealing them I hasten to add). I've actually never had a bass that was 3+1. It's curious actually. Alien almost.

That 3 mile drive is killer in the current economic situation.

Well, a while back (2 years ago in fact), Klos started offering replacement necks. I had the idea of "wouldn't it be cool to have a Wal with a graphite neck?" So, I ordered one. There were massive delays as they were tooling from scratch. No big deal, I'm a patient man. I ordered a G4 body from Warmoth as well as some Herrick multicoil pickups and a Lusithand NFP Special preamp. Along the way, aside from the wait, other things raised their heads. Herrick pickups were too deep to fit in a standard MM hole. Fine, get the route deepened. What I didn't know was the pickups were actually too big anyway as for some reason, the holes where the screws go to fix them to the body. So, I had to have the cases files down. Funnily, Martin said he was aware of this issue and yet they didn't put it on the product page. Hopefully, they'll have sorted that issue now as he makes really good gear. As the neck holes had to be drilled I wasn't doing that. So, I got it back last week and here we go. So, does it sound as I thought? Yes. It's not quite Wal sounding as the Lusithand filters go to about 4kHz rather than the Wal's which only go to about 2.8kHz. So there's more top end if you want it. Kind of like in the realm of Modulus sounding top end. The preamp and pickups are insanely loud. I had to wind down the preamp gain about 50% to get an equivalent sound as with my Wal, with no clipping. I did ask Ian Klos for some other things as well. He's a really nice guy and I spoke to him on the phone for about an hour one day. So, I had the nut width made wider to accommodate my playing style. I also had the radius altered, string spacing changed and a hipshot for good measure. The body is a Warmoth G4. Walnut body with a Black Korina top. Bridge is a Babicz with Harley Benton knobs. This is the 3rd thing I've bought from Nuno at Lusithand and he really knows his stuff as well as being incredibly helpful too. Herrick pickups are great and the peeps at Klos make great gear too if you like graphite. I can honestly say it's one of the most comfortable necks I've ever played. With the demise of Status going wood only, if you want a replacement graphite neck, you could do a lot worse than order one of these. When I get a moment, I'll upload a video of me noodling around.

Yeah, and they can do one for that price too. I posted on Tech 21's Faceook page and asked how many they would sell if the price in the US was the same as here which was at the time $712. They replied with a care emoji. Really?!! Really?!!!! It costs more than an HX Stomp which guess what, you can do everything this does and a whole lot more, plus it has presets and midi control as well as 2 inputs so you can run a bass in stereo which is in stereo like an Alembic. Unlike this which is just parallel from a mono signal. Their stance is totally wrong to me. Summarised, it's "but it's not us! We have no control of the price gouging idiots at Rocky Road!" Now, either they really have no control and Rocky Road is price gouging us, or they're doing what Ernie Ball did which is keep the US price artificially low by deliberately making everywhere else more expensive by charging the importer full US list price. I think it comes over that they don't care about you at all if you're outside continental US. Which makes it doubly ironic they replied with a care emoji to me.

In case anyone is interested. The OP text was Richard Osman. I can't remember if it was an interview or just on a show, but I've definitely seen it.

It's probably best we don't know.

I met him in Glasgow in 98 or 99. I don't know if they still do it, but Stiff Little Fingers used to play the Barrowlands in Glasgow every St. Patrick's day without fail. He was just walking through Queen Street station and obviously, one had to have a quick chat. He was a really nice guy.

Ultimately, nobody cares about what a particular bass player uses unless you're a fan. Dingwall and Darkglass have built empires off Nolly Getgood's back. Mark King probably put Rob Green's unborn great grandkids though university the amount of signature stuff he did with them. It was something that I found frustrating as for every new tour/anniversary/album a new Kingbass would appear. How amazing. What innovation. Oh, so aside from the paramatrix circuit, nothing was really new and just options you could choose. Maybe do a new model? Maybe replace the buzzard with something similar? No. Endless variants of the same. Ashdown have now went after anybody it appears. Does anyone really think a standard RM800 with "Rex" on it will sell well? Or the standard ABM with some bad graffiti front panel with "Shavo" on it? Good luck with that. That's before you get to the signature pedals which are mostly truly terrible.

What kind of bass cab can be endorsed by Eddie Hall then? Is that the holy grail? Or would they have to be endorsed by Tom Stoltman currently World's Strongest Man for them to be adequately trusted?

I don't know about that. I thought your TE 1200 was brilliant actually.

Let's not confuse "endorsee" or "endorsed by" with signature model. I would say the hands down winner is Mark King. Nine different models of Status Kingbass. NINE. All of them are just options of each other. That's impressive. Not just for Rob Green who milked the "I must play Mr. Pink by Level 42 with the exact same gear as Mark was using on tour!" crowd for everything they've got. Rex is catching up though. Obviously the new Pantera tour wasn't such a money spinner after all.

That's probably because they are. It's why the nut width on the medium price market is almost universally 40mm. Fancy a Cort bass? Buy anything under 800 quid that doesn't have Fender on it and that's what you're probably getting anyway. I would imagine people would be going for an Ibanez before these.

10 weeks actually. End of the financial year. Great. Spend more on an amp with someone's name on it and slightly different knobs. Neither of them will be any different from standard models I bet.

No, it belonged to Jesus of Nazareth as he could only afford it with help from his father. Yes, that's in jest as I own 2 Alembics which are fabulously amazing instruments. Admittedly, I couldn't afford a new one now and unlike Jesus, don't have nepotism to fall back on.

Alembic have been without a UK distributor for almost 20 years. The last one was The American Guitar Centre down in Ashford Kent and they hadn't done anything for years before they ceased trading. However, this may be a good thing, if of course Bass Direct can ever get the peeps at Alembic to answer the phone or email. Whilst I got the issue I had sorted out, trying to get hold of them (I appreciate the time difference before anyone says) was really frustrating. It all got sorted out really quickly when I did and they are lovely people who honestly couldn't do enough for me. Just they don't seem to reply to emails or answer the phone very much at all. Which reminds me, I have had something I've been putting off sorting with my Stanley Clarke for more than a year because of fear of this happening again. But, we can see how that pans out.